Dave Johnson wrote:



It is a far cry from obtaining the data from the airport plan view page
while in flight to having to obtain it on the ground before flight,
especially if you were to have to look up each and every airport over a
large area. Isn't ease of obtaining data in the cockpit what the original
Captain Jeppesen had in mind?

Indeed that is what he had in mind. He didn't know, however, about electronic
databases coming along many years later that would replace some of the
information on the chart. Note for instance, no RNAV (GPS) IAPs have LAT/LONs
on the chart because they are in the database and automatic.



Let me clarify my use of "RNAV". I am not talking about a system with
internal data bases, which seems to be what you are thinking about. I guess
today RNAV equals GPS and other modern processor based systems. I am
talking about the original use of RNAV which was a displaced VOR/DME system
where the unit required you to enter the freq, radial, and distance. King
made at least two versions of this and there were a lot of these units
placed in new and used aircraft over the years. There are probably still a
goodly number of these units in use. I would hope that those who fly with
them have be instructed how to use them for ARP's which is a handy
application of that eras equipment. Even when I fly aircraft equipped with
both the old RNAV and a GPS unit I carry RNAV flight plan data as a backup
in case the GPS system drops out .. which it did one night on an IFR flight
due to Rockwell-Collins testing in the area I was flying through.

There are always exceptional situations, of course.